Simple game: Cubefield

Have you ever developed a game?

If so, did you at any point sit in a room and try to create The New Game, and in the process you keep piling on features and levels and obstacles until the game is so convoluted you have to scratch the whole idea?

Yeah, me neither.

Someone turned me onto this game today: Cubefield. Keep this game in mind as you brainstorm next time. The simplest games are the most addicting, usually.


Oh, and don't forget to dodge the cubes. When you don't, you lose. ...That's it.

P.S. If you want to make the game harder, try to take a screen grab while you play. That's why I get paid the big bucks, I guess.

ToppsTown: Crazy Cam

Woo! Time to talk about my other favorite ToppsTown game, Crazy Cam. All told I have about ten favorite games, but this is my favorite of the favorites. ;)

I have plenty to say about this one. It went through several iterations, and I am so happy with the way it ended up.

In terms of cameos, I'd like to mention that one of our copywriters, JP, is the crazyfan (red guy). Also, LaunchForce's Brett is the crazy dancing guy and Mark is the cowboy. Studs, these guys.

So let's talk game tips. Here's a screenshot of how awesome I am... #1 on the leaderboard at this moment, as my avatar Sir Sushi Sushi. Like my awesome pig arm? That cost me a pretty penny. (Yeah, you'd think I'd get some in-game perks, but nothin' happenin'.)

Playing the game well is easy. First off, find the crazyfan. When you see the red guy on the screen, hunt him down with great vigilance! He's worth 10x any of the other characters (500 points, I believe!).

My only other tip is to move in chunks. Instead of scrolling all over the screen, move a few inches and pause, then move a few inches and pause again. Why? Because all of the characters are animated to move slightly (or in Brett's case, flailing wildly), and your eye will pick it up much more easily if you stop the board from moving around. Personally I move along the bottom, then up along the top.

If there's an exception to this rule, it'd be the mascot (tiger). He stands out enough that you can usually just flounder around looking for him. The hardest to find, which you already know if you've played at all, are the baby and the grandmother... they just blend right in to the majorly blue background.

Did that help?

Here's a link to previous Topps Town posts.

ToppsTown: Bazooka Blow

While I'm not trying to turn this into a ToppsTown blog, the site is really fun to blog about. There are so many behind-the-scenes stories that I want to tell you about, and as close as I am to the project there's still so much that's a surprise to me. I guess that speaks to how much combined effort goes into a virtual world.

Today I logged on and noticed that Bazooka Blow is the featured game. Huzzah! While I enjoy all of our games, this simple twitch game makes my day. (Besides entering ToppsTown codes, it's also probably the easiest to rack of a few quick points.) In case you haven't played it, I'm posting a few screen grabs.

Charlie did an awesome job with this guy's expressions. (Oops! I originally said it was Evan, who also does amazing work, but this game was in Charlie's court. Oooops!) That's what makes such a basic game really stand out: the style behind it.

We also developed the music for the game-- you can thank Mark for the goofy, classic arcade-type music that loops throughout the game.

And I think there's a great finishing touch on the bee and the claw, both which fly in randomly to pop your Bazooka bubble. TIP: If you haven't noticed yet, they don't automatically pop the bubble. Sometimes if you wait just for one super-tense second, they might... might... fly back out of frame, leaving your bubble intact. As far as I can tell, the claw is more likely to vamoose than the bee (whom I repeatedly curse to high heaven).

Question to anyone still reading: are you interesting in hearing back-stories on other Topps Town games?

Dino Run

Sometimes this blog has too much yakky, not enough pixelated dinosaur hijinx. This awesome game comes from mon ami Jared, who has excellent taste in such things.

Anyone want to go multiplayer?